Submerged Haines harbor ramp repaired

The ramp to the Haines harbor was impassible after it partially sank on Tuesday. A perfect storm of heavy snow and wind, a low tide, and mechanical failure caused the gangway to fall off the dock tracks and into the water. KHNS’ Corinne Smith checked in with the Haines harbormaster for the latest.

 

Haines Harbormaster Shawn Bell said dispatch called around midnight Tuesday to say the harbor’s main gangway was partially submerged. He went over immediately to investigate, thinking maybe it was a prank. 

“Rather surprising is an understatement when I first saw it,” Bell said.

The gangway connecting the floating dock with the shore slides back and forth on tracks as the tides rise and fall. But Tuesday night, it slid off the tracks at the bottom of the ramp and got wedged there.

“With the gangway stuck in place, you know, something has to give. So as the water rose, the supporting float began to sink, and it just buckled under the pressure,” Bell said. “And as you can imagine, this led to severe damage to the supporting gangway float, and was only getting worse with every tide cycle.”

He estimates the first 15 to 20 feet of the harbor ramp was totally submerged in the water, and the dock was flipped, cutting off passage from the harbor to the shore. 

He says he stayed on watch the rest of that night, to monitor the power to roughly 70 boats in the harbor, and as the tide went out throughout the night. He was thinking about a plan for the next morning. 

“Something had to be done fairly quickly, in order to stop further damage and be able to keep power to all the vessels in the harbor,” Bell said. “Power in my mind was a big concern, because the last thing we needed to happen on top of this was to have boats starting to go down because of no shore power, and dead batteries. So we knew that low tide was the only window that we had to try and free the gangway and raise it from being stuck on the float.”

In the morning, Bell could see more of the damage, and says the cause was an unfortunate confluence of factors. 

“And those factors were minus four tide, colder than usual temperatures – which caused additional icing and snow buildup – putting the float lower in the water, and severe wind pushing on the gangway,” he said. “And then just the guide tracks weren’t long enough to account for all of these variables.”

He says a team of borough employees, fishermen and community volunteers came together on Wednesday to find a solution. They first tried to use an excavator to lift the submerged ramp, but couldn’t get close enough.

“So at this point, and and this is really the part that I really love about this community, this town, is there were several guys from the harbor, and community and in general, that just wanted to give support and find an alternate way to free up the gangway and there’s no question in my mind that without their help, we would not be as good a shape as we are now. They, you know, they grabbed their own jacks, the ropes, chains, come along (tools) and then just went to work.” 

They were able to jack up the submerged ramp and reposition the dock, and put down wooden planks to create a new track. 

Meanwhile, people had to skiff back and forth in single-digit temperatures to check on boats and reach the shore. 

But the power stayed on, says Bell, thankfully. He says the borough has contracted with Chilkat Custom Contractors  to further fortify the float at the bottom of the ramp, to start next week. He estimates the cost of that short-term fix to be between $30,000 to $40,000. Down the road, he says the harbor ramp will need a new float, likely next summer, and that will cost much more. 

Bell says he’s grateful for the community effort and all those who stepped up to help.

“I really just like to express my gratitude to everyone that helped get the gangway operational again. There was support by borough staff, and always someone just walking by coming down in the harbor, willing to give a hand…And so thanks everyone for their support. And I’m glad that the gangway is functional once again.”

Temporary repairs are complete as of Friday and the harbor ramp is passable — just in time for the next winter storm.